john boehner, for instance, wants to do entitlement reform and tax reform in 2013 now. and he wants to have another trigger mechanism to make sure they take place. we're essentially going to have this whole thing happen all over again. the white house is precondition has always been, well, we have to do something before this december 31st. and i have just from talking to people in the white house and democrats and some republicans, it seems pretty likely you're going to see some in tax increases by the end of this year. that's going to happen. they're not going to say, yeah, we'll call it a day. the question is, then, what kind of entitlement reforms you have. and i think the political article got it. there's been pretty bright red lines set around social security. democrats don't want to touch that. >> gene, another battle we're having right now has to do with possibility of susan rice being nominated as secretary of state. it's gotten ugly over the past couple of days. john mccain calling her unfit for office. what's your take? >> well, you know, you've got to -- well